Man, Boston is gonna be awfully hard to beat if they’re healthy come playoff time. They absolutely dismantled LA in the 4th quarter, who resorted to Kobe iso’s every single time down the court. It looked like a mismatch for the last 8 minutes of the game.

there are very few players in the league who would miss any of the three shot attempts mozgov has had… Joel Anthony, maybe DJ Mbenga (is he still in the league?). Seems a case of nerves. Somehow I feel like Mozgov would develop really well under a coach like Popovich who doesn’t really care if you score (or win) as long as you make the right play.

Great rebound by Randolph there, kind of exciting to see him on the floor.

And it’s interesting to see Gallo as the focus of the offense. Seems far more capable of creating with the ball in his hand than he generally does spotting up on the three point line. It is the Pistons though…

Owen: Great rebound by Randolph there, kind of exciting to see him on the floor.
And it’s interesting to see Gallo as the focus of the offense. Seems far more capable of creating with the ball in his hand than he generally does spotting up on the three point line. It is the Pistons though…

As weird as it sounds I like this lineup it gives Gallo an opportunity to be more aggressive, walker can stretch the floor, toney can pressure the ball and you have AR and Mosgov rebounding and protecting the rim.

Owen: Unreal. Who knew how much fun it would be to watch a gangly awkward Russian try to play…

Me, I’ve been saying all along that they shouldn’t have buried him. He was having issues with his nerves in my opinion. See how once he does some good things to where he knows even if he makes a mistake he’s still playing well so it’s forgivable. I think he can build on this.

I do not want to see this game go down to the wire, I have this feeling in the pit of my stomach that we may see the return of Madison Square Gordon (remember all those punch to the gut shots he used to make to beat us when he was with Chicago?)

Wow it was so cool to see Mozilla (hey my keyboard put it there I’m not that inventive) and AR get some burn and do well that I stayed away to pay better attention. Sadly I alsobatrly noticed Detroit is leading at the half.

Love the way Mosgov is playing. Staying within himself, letting the game come to him.
Also, was thrilled that AR played within himself. I was wondering if he was going to get frustrated that mosgov was getting shots and he wasn’t. But he got the ball, was alone 1 on 4, and instead of forcing a shot, he turned and passed to landry and the offense set itself.
That was a big moment for me.
And I also noticed with Mosgov and AR where out there together, the Pistons stayed on the perimeter. That was nice to see.
If they can continue to give quality minutes, I have high hopes for the second half.’
It’s only one half, but in my view, it’s the most effective and efficient half that both guys have played.

Now, Gallo needs to starting running things again. He has a knack for creating shots for himself and his teammates. They should not go away from him. With Amare hurting and Felton really sucking from the field, we need Gallo to score more.

I turned the radio on toward the end of the 2nd half. Heard “Mozgov goes to the line as Anthony Randolph gets set to check in.” I thought I thought I was turning on the Knick game, but I never heard of these players! :)

Yeah, Felton is whack right now. Positives: Gallinari on that near and-one. In the past, he’s just flung the ball at the rim at the first sign of contact, with no chance for a finish. That time, he stayed strong and nearly put it in.

man every team team would love to play against the knicks for the 82 games. No defense, lots of offensive rebounds and career games on points. hope the knicks do something on defense if not its going to be a long 4 qte

Just a moment of whimsy:
Imagine Mosgov being able to do this consistently…
Playing well off the ball. Letting the game come to him. Limiting silly fouls. Guarding the glass, snatching boards.
Amare’s life would change.

Man, Gallo ever gets this all together, he’s going to be great.
At 6’11, he can shoot from the moon, and forces defenders to meet him out there. But then he can put the ball on the floor and penetrate. And he’s a strong finisher.

ok..I know we have re-taken the lead and are playing well..but i’m VERY frustrated..
SOMEONE PLEASE TELL STAT TO FRICKIN REBOUND!! And plz tell Donnie Walsh to lose Walker. 3 point shot or not, he is too gifted to be so damn 1 dimensional. The only difference between him and Mason Jr is Walker’s hitting his shots. At this point I say dump Walker and show more faith in Mason Jr..I promise that once he hits his stride, Mike D won’t be disappointed. Plus Mason Jr plays better Defense..I mean damn..if all Walker’s gonna do is spot up from 3..let Mason do it with half the gifts. Especially if other teams like Walker..

ess-dog: It’s weird, our defense does suck somewhat, but we quite often clamp down in the 4th.It’s like they’re saving it.Man we sure could use a mobile 7 footer who can grab boards, defend and run the p&r, and maybe with a nice little jumper….that sure would be great….where can we find one…. Mozgov raises his hand.

Owen: “Man, Gallo ever gets this all together, he’s going to be great.”
True. Of course, 50% of the players in the NBA fit in that category, every time JR Smith goes off for 7 threes, I think the same thing….

Just musing, Owen.
He’s also just 22, a hell of a lot more muscular than last year, and showing offensive depth that we really haven’t seen until this year.
I’m hopeful

Just musing, Owen.
He’s also just 22, a hell of a lot more muscular than last year, and showing offensive depth that we really haven’t seen until this year.
I’m hopeful

No, I know, i know. He did look good as a first option. But tonight looks more like the Mozgov and Monroe coming out party…

Gallo is a nice player but I still don’t know if I see him having All-Star potential. As much as I love him, he seems like a slighly sleeker more euro version of Ryan Anderson, or a latter day Robert Horry…

Detroit looked like they were on pogo sticks getting put backs in the first, and then D’Antoni introduces a couple seven footers and what happened?
Fewer of those easy second looks. 11 O boards is still too many, IMO, but the KNicks also have 12 O boards.

and having the big men allows Amare to just be an offensive weapon. He doesn’t need to do it all.

Owen: Just musing, Owen.
He’s also just 22, a hell of a lot more muscular than last year, and showing offensive depth that we really haven’t seen until this year.
I’m hopefulNo, I know, i know. He did look good as a first option. But tonight looks more like the Mozgov and Monroe coming out party…Gallo is a nice player but I still don’t know if I see him having All-Star potential. As much as I love him, he seems like a slighly sleeker more euro version of Ryan Anderson, or a latter day Robert Horry…

I think we agree, but I think, and I may not be remembering this as well, but those guys couldn’t put the ball on the ground or pass like Gallo.

cgreene: I actually think if the Knicks pull this out it is a pretty good win.Gordon is making fully contested jump back 3?s.In the first half it was the D but now it’s just Gordon.

Yeah, agree. If you look at the shot chart, we just destroyed them in points in the paint. The Pistons kept themselves in it by hitting a lot of perimeter shots. We could easily have won by 30 if Villanueva and Gordon just had average nights.

“I think we agree, but I think, and I may not be remembering this as well, but those guys couldn’t put the ball on the ground or pass like Gallo. ”

Yeah, I love the big guys though. I don’t know, just not convinced that Gallo can be a star in this league. He’s averaging less than 5 rebounds per 36, doesn’t pass all that well, doesn’t really do anything all that well in fact other than score efficiently. He needs to do a lot more on the boards to convince me he can be a star in the league.

I know he is 22 but he has been in the league long enough that I don’t think we will see a leap from here. It’s possible but unlikely from here I think. Would be interesting to know what kind of guys have made that kind of improvement. Eddy Curry certainly couldn’t manage it…

Re:Mozgov – It’s amazing what happens when a player is allowed to play through his mistakes. My son used to have a travel hoops coach whose substitution method was to immediately yank any player (other than his son) who made a mistake on the court. A real confidence building type of coach. I think AR may need to get extended minutes at some point to have the same experience as Timo.

Owen: “I think we agree, but I think, and I may not be remembering this as well, but those guys couldn’t put the ball on the ground or pass like Gallo. ”Yeah, I love the big guys though. I don’t know, just not convinced that Gallo can be a star in this league. He’s averaging less than 5 rebounds per 36, doesn’t pass all that well, doesn’t really do anything all that well in fact other than score efficiently. He needs to do a lot more on the boards to convince me he can be a star in the league.
I know he is 22 but he has been in the league long enough that I don’t think we will see a leap from here. It’s possible but unlikely from here I think. Would be interesting to know what kind of guys have made that kind of improvement. Eddy Curry certainly couldn’t manage it…

Depends on whose definition of “star” we’re using. Gallo will probably maintain the same rebounding/assist/block/steal rates throughout his career. But I think he will eventually get more shots and up his shooting % a bit. If he’s scoring 20ppg (either in NY or elsewhere), the media/tabloids/ESPN will call him a “star” even if some advanced metrics (and you n’ Berri) say he’s no better than he is now.

Owen: “I think we agree, but I think, and I may not be remembering this as well, but those guys couldn’t put the ball on the ground or pass like Gallo. ”Yeah, I love the big guys though. I don’t know, just not convinced that Gallo can be a star in this league. He’s averaging less than 5 rebounds per 36, doesn’t pass all that well, doesn’t really do anything all that well in fact other than score efficiently. He needs to do a lot more on the boards to convince me he can be a star in the league.
I know he is 22 but he has been in the league long enough that I don’t think we will see a leap from here. It’s possible but unlikely from here I think. Would be interesting to know what kind of guys have made that kind of improvement. Eddy Curry certainly couldn’t manage it…

Why does Gallo need to be a “star” though?? I will take a very solid starting caliber player like he is becoming/already is. I totally agree about the lack of rebounding, especially since the Knicks could certainly use it, but as disappointed as I was with the way Gallo started the season ever since the initial west-coast trip that “saved” the Knicks season he has been great and surprisingly now that he has seemed to have found his 3pt shot again he has been even greater since the knee injury in terms of his overall offensive game.

Depends on whose definition of “star” we’re using. Gallo will probably maintain the same rebounding/assist/block/steal rates throughout his career. But I think he will eventually get more shots and up his shooting % a bit. If he’s scoring 20ppg (either in NY or elsewhere), the media/tabloids/ESPN will call him a “star” even if some advanced metrics (and you n’ Berri) say he’s no better than he is now.

Yeah, I’ve been saying for awhile that if Gallo played for a shitty team, he’d be a perennial All-Star contender.

Owen: “I know he is 22 but he has been in the league long enough that I don’t think we will see a leap from here. It’s possible but unlikely from here I think…

I felt this way for a while, but I think we’ve seen two major improvements from Gallo in just this season alone, and they both relate to his aggressiveness on offense:

1.) He’s driving to the whole more and drawing fouls at a star-like rate.
2.) This is mostly relating to what we saw tonight, but after throwing up a few bricks in the 2nd, he kept shooting instead of disappearing for the rest of the game, and it paid off.

I know Gallo has said he doesn’t see himself as a star, and most elite players are dominant from their rookie year, but maybe he’s going through an unorthodox kind of development. I dunno.

latke: anyone see postgame interviews? the feed cut off as soon as the game ended. I’m curious what D’Antoni had to say.

I always go to MSG.com a few hours after the game because they always put up D’Antoni’s post-game press conference along with player interviews and some post-game analysis from the studio (usually Trautwig and Tripucka).

Well, look, Gallo doesn’t “need” to be a star. I think he is a solid player. But nights like this are a little deceiving I thing.

My basic concern is pretty simple. His numbers look a ton like Reggie Miller’s and Steve Kerr. A little more rebounding, a lot less passing. Basically, I think Danilo projects as an elite role player type at best. Not a terrible thing, but not the kind of guy who is an essential building block for the future.

Owen: “I think we agree, but I think, and I may not be remembering this as well, but those guys couldn’t put the ball on the ground or pass like Gallo. ”Yeah, I love the big guys though. I don’t know, just not convinced that Gallo can be a star in this league. He’s averaging less than 5 rebounds per 36, doesn’t pass all that well, doesn’t really do anything all that well in fact other than score efficiently. He needs to do a lot more on the boards to convince me he can be a star in the league.
I know he is 22 but he has been in the league long enough that I don’t think we will see a leap from here. It’s possible but unlikely from here I think. Would be interesting to know what kind of guys have made that kind of improvement. Eddy Curry certainly couldn’t manage it…

Chandler made a big leap from 22 to 23. Gallo could too.
I kind of disagree about the passing. Gallo can dish; he doesn’t get many ops to, but he can dish.
I totally agree on the boards. At 6’11, playing small forward often, he should be all over the glass when the ball is in the air.

I think Peja is probably the perfect comparison. And that’s probably his ceiling. Now, how good was Peja really. Tough to say. There was a lot of talent on those Sacramento teams, including Vlade and C-Webb in his prime…

As well as the Knicks move the ball, that Kings team had virtuoso passers (Webber and Divac in particular). I think Peja got a lot more wide-open looks than Gallo does now. I’m making this up, but it seems plausible.

I just watched the 2nd half, what a career game. Though, I think it’s a little premature to start anointing him the next Hakeem. He’s not going to start 30 min. consistently every night, but great game for the kid’s confidence. It’s good to know we actually do have a deeper team than we all realized.

Owen: Well, look, Gallo doesn’t “need” to be a star. I think he is a solid player. But nights like this are a little deceiving I thing.My basic concern is pretty simple. His numbers look a ton like Reggie Miller’s and Steve Kerr. A little more rebounding, a lot less passing. Basically, I think Danilo projects as an elite role player type at best. Not a terrible thing, but not the kind of guy who is an essential building block for the future.

Owen, I didn’t realize you felt that way…Players that come into the league very young often take longer to develop than the average player. Some never do, for sure. Curry comes to mind.
But we won’t know about Gallo for a bit.

Owen: Kind of shocking, but the Kings were the best team in the league in 01-02. Crazy.I have to give Peja some credit. Second most minutes on the best team in the league, with the other major contributors being Christie, Bibby, Christie, Divac, andBobby J. Couldn’t have been that bad…I just have trouble with power forwards acting like glorified shooting guards. Waste of the position….

“Owen, I didn’t realize you felt that way…Players that come into the league very young often take longer to develop than the average player. Some never do, for sure. Curry comes to mind.
But we won’t know about Gallo for a bit.”

Yeah, we are getting close. He’s got about one more year from here. Really, most players show you who they are by the end of their third year. Other things happen. Players go to new settings. Or they get more playing time somewhere and seem to have emerged. Or come over from Europe. But a lot of times the signs were there.

Right, but I think Owen’s problem is 6 foot 9 guys like Peja (or a 6 foot 10 guy like Gallo) not being able to rebound or realistically play the 4 at all. When they can score like Peja could and Gallo hopefully can, I’m personally cool with it.

Owen: “Owen, I didn’t realize you felt that way…Players that come into the league very young often take longer to develop than the average player. Some never do, for sure. Curry comes to mind.
But we won’t know about Gallo for a bit.”Yeah, we are getting close. He’s got about one more year from here. Really, most players show you who they are by the end of their third year. Other things happen. Players go to new settings. Or they get more playing time somewhere and seem to have emerged. Or come over from Europe. But a lot of times the signs were there.Chandler has done it so far this year, so it’s certainly possible…

I worry about Chandler. I saw the sleeve on his calf maybe three or four games ago. But I think it recent slump is more about Carmelo. He isn’t one of those hyper confident types. I think his confidence is more fragile.
But for most of this year, he showed significant improvement over last year.
Gallo seems a different player since returning from his knee injury.
Regardless, fun win tonight.

“Right, but I think Owen’s problem is 6 foot 9 guys like Peja (or a 6 foot 10 guy like Gallo) not being able to rebound or realistically play the 4 at all. When they can score like Peja could and Gallo hopefully can, I’m personally cool with it.”

He’s not Dirk, who saw a dramatic increase in his rebounding in his third year incidentally.

I would be happy if Gallo turned out to be Peja, a 3-time all star and one of the top shooters in the league for an extended stretch, but I think his game is more diversified and he will eventually be better.

Re: Moz, it was a promising evening, but let’s not get carried away on this one night. The Pistons are a bad team, and other than Gordon, were really terrible in the second half tonight. Clearly, though, he should get some of Amar’e and Turiaf’s minutes. The Dallas game and the back-to-back games vs. Philly should be much better indicators of how much he can help us. I must say, though, it was refreshing to see him and AR dominating the glass.

Really, most players show you who they are by the end of their third year. Or other things happen. Players go to new settings. They get more playing time somewhere and seem to have emerged. Or come over from Europe. But a lot of times the signs were there.”

Going to append to that comment that Marcin Gortat probably is about to be the latest and greatest version of this phenomenon…

RE Amar’e’s rebounding, I would be easy on him for now, the guy is obviously playing hurt, affecting the shot-blocking and rebounding. Maybe AR and Mozzie can help him cut his minutes for a while. The Feb schedule is light but March is brutal (in terms of # of games, not opponents.) Would love to see Stat play no more than 5 minutes in All-Star game so that he can rest/heal up.

To me, the Warkentien signing seems to most suggest that Donnie could be thinking about calling it quits after this season. He’s 69 and coming off of hip surgery, and he’s just the kind of guy who would try his best to keep that decision out of the press — to keep the focus on the team. Why else hire a guy with a proven GM track record?

@266 I agree with Z-man, a promising evening for Moz, but if a healthy Turiaf played 40 minutes, he could probably get 20 and 10 also against this Pistons team. A lot of Moz’s points were putbacks and alley oops off of horrendous Detroit defense on penetrators. But it’s a start, and with him, confidence is important, to say the least.

Guys, from everything I have read Walsh and Warkentien have been friends for a long time and we all know Walsh has been trying to hire one of his guys here for a long time. Rather Warkentien than Mullin thats for sure.

For the question asked above about if AR couldve had Mozgov’s numbers tonight if the minutes were reversed, no chance in hell. Moz even before tonight has shown he has a pretty high basketball IQ on the offensive end. Look at how good he is at rolling of the PnR. Tonight he was catching the ball which obviously made a world of difference plus he seems to have a great knack for getting offensive rebounds.

Mozgov is huge and plays pretty physical. He is a true Center. AR is nowhere near as physically imposing and is obviously not a Center which hurts him on this team. For everybody ripping on D’Antoni for not playing a real Center remember Mozgov was the starting Center when the season started but D’Antoni realized and admitted that it was all too much too soon for Mozgov and changed plans accordingly.

To me there are way more available minutes for Mozgov and Turiaf to get rather than AR.

Just saw some sports guy get really excited that “it’s only 15 days until pitchers and catchers!” Maybe it’s because I’m not much of a baseball fan anymore, but I’ve never quite gotten the buzz about some guys practicing throwing to each other down in Florida.

Flip Gallo & Felton’s numbers and the Knicks have a shot at getting a first round upset (provided they’re not playing Boston or Miami).
On Peja & Gallo- In his prime Peja was as good a shooter as there was in the NBA- he had a great mid-range game to go with the 3 pointer (something Gallo lacks at the moment). I’m not sure Gallo will ever be a good a pure shooter as peja but he gets to the rim better and should wind up a much better defender than Peja as long as his team defense (which is pretty poor) catches up to his man defense (which is pretty good and getting better). I can certainly see Gallo making a few all-star teams- can he get to all-nba like Peja was in 03/04? I don’t know.

It’ll be very interesting to see if Timo can get anything positive going against the Mavs- I have a feeling Tyson Chandler will give him all sorts of problems so should be a better gauge of what we might see from him going forward than the Pistons who played some of the worst interior defense I’ve seen- at least since last years Knicks!

Hey, I’ve got to do this predicting thing more often. Problem is, I have no idea what we’re going to get v. Dallas. Really not a clue. Sixers, either split or take both (very tough to win home-and-home both games). But Dallas, we could get blown out, or we could blow them out. Anyone have a guess?

I’m gonna try not to get too fired up about Mozgov’s performance. The idea that Timofey Mozgov might actually be able to play NBA-caliber basketball is almost too exciting to contemplate.

If Timo can manage to approximate an actual NBA center for 30 minutes a game or so, that would just be so huge for us. We could stop playing small ball all the time and it would have a ripple effect, allowing Amar’e, Shawne Williams and WC to play more minutes at their natural positions.

Mozgov had been averaging 7 fouls per 36 minutes so the fact that he was able to stay on the court for 40 minutes and only pick up four fouls definitely shows impressive progress. I can’t wait for the next game to see if this continues.

Man, is it a relief to watch young guys with upside instead of overrated veterans with terrible, untradeable contracts.

We do have striking similarities to that Kings team. Biggest difference is that they had the best passing bigs in the game in Webber, Vlade, and Brad Miller. Your point about shots though is dead on (especially considering Bibby was a way better shooter than Felton).

“What a steal. I’m telling you, he’s an outstanding basketball player. People do not realize how good of a basketball player and understanding of the game that he has. Great rebounder for a guy his size, understands how to play the game and very impressed.”

I don’t want to see this guy traded for Melo.

I also don’t want Gallo traded for Melo.

Heck, I don’t want WC traded for Melo, but at this point, he I at least could live with.

Mozgov needed a game like this. Of course he won’t be able to consistantly do anything close to this but I think this should be a huge boost to his confidence going forward which was his biggest weakness. I would not be surprised if we start seeing the Mozgov we saw i preseason. He has been effeicient everywhere he’s been I would not be surprised if he can be an efficient bigman. He has great size, great offensive instincts and nice touch on his jumper. I put his offensive ceiling higher than the Dalemberts and Biedrins of the world.

As for Gallos rebounding I think he is a bit of a victim of the system. On offense he is always on the perimeter and since Fields is allowed to crash, Gallo’s job is to get back on defense. I also think sharing wing duties with the best rebounding guard in the league doesn’t help his numbers. I don’t think Gallo is a great rebounder but I think on a more conventional team he would be solidly average for a SF.

Robert Silverman:
I guess that LeBron guy was pretty good for the Cavs last year

Delonte, Shaq, Z and healthy Mo Williams and Varejao wouldn’t hurt. You have almost 4/5s of their starting lineup there (and the other 1/5 is Lebron). I thought they would try to fight for a playoff spot, but they have given up.

There were 2 particular plays that impressed me tonight that involved the team and Amar’e/Felton in general.

Amar’e was on the left corner and made a cut towards the free throw line from the outside going through 2 screens. He then caught the ball from Felton (who was on the right elbow) and IMMEDIATELY made a move to the left for the dunk. Amar’e has been much more dangerous and effective when there was no delay between him catching the ball and making his move.

2nd was the play the involved the Knicks swinging the ball via the perimeter which eventually led to a PnR with Felton/STAT. Felton did a give and go with Amar’e which led to a PnR which led to Amar’e at the FT line. Outstanding ballmovement on that play.

Oh and as many posters above pointed out, the Knicks didn’t have trouble rebounding with Mosgov and Randolph out there.

Brian Cronin: The Pistons’ coach on Fields:
I don’t want to see this guy traded for Melo.I also don’t want Gallo traded for Melo.
Heck, I don’t want WC traded for Melo, but at this point, he I at least could live with.

Gotta say, having that be my only live game of the year was just awesome. Mozgov’s performance literally made me laugh it was so out of left field. People were looking at me very strangely, and I had to explain that I wasn’t laughing AT him so much as at D’Antoni for waiting this long to give him — and AR for that matter — another chance. He played within himself, got through a rough first quarter, and while many of his points and some of his rebounds could be attributed more to serendipity, it really doesn’t matter. The way Amar’e, Fields and Gallo used their leadership to steer him through was something special. Even before the game, Moz and Felton were playing a little 1 on 1, and Moz looked genuinely excited. I knew then he’d be getting at least a little burn.

I agree that we shouldn’t be getting ahead of ourselves, but I also agree with previous posts that if we can get a solid 10 and 5 out of him on a regular basis, that would be enormous. That way we can focus on a backup PG and have a little more to work with in that regard. Of course, these next few games will be key to that. Really want to see how Moz handles Chandler, even if it’s in more limited minutes.

Highlight of the night: fiance and I sat next to a bombshell blond who claimed to have met and had a drink with Wilt the Stilt. Here’s how she prefaced the story: “Oh I have a better one than that. I had a drink with Wilt the Stilt once. I was at a bar and his friend came over and said I seemed like the kind of girl Wilt would like….”

I was talking to a guy at a party the other night who met Wilt back in 1994 (he even had a picture of him with Wilt on his phone – he had uploaded it on to his phone to show someone who didn’t believe that he had met Wilt). He claimed that he asked Wilt, “Come on, you know what I want to know. 20,000?” and Wilt told him that he felt that it was a conservative estimate, and that his days in Los Angeles were just crazy. Wilt then added that he was pissed at Bill Cosby because he said that Cosby used to hang out at the same parties he did during the early 1970s, and he was irked at Cosby moralizing at the time (1994).